Get Binding Earth and Heaven: Patriarchal Blessings in the PDF

In Binding Earth and Heaven, Gary Shepherd and Gordon Shepherd use early nineteenth-century Mormonism as a case research to envision questions about how new non secular routine may perhaps, as infrequent exceptions, live to tell the tale or even finally turn into winning regardless of excessive competition. preliminary scorn and contempt for Mormonism—the fledgling production of the younger Joseph Smith—quickly increased to mob violence as either Smith’s leading edge teachings and switched over fans proliferated, leading to the commonly held conception that the Mormons constituted a social threat. This ebook examines how Mormonism attracted and maintained the loyalty of accelerating numbers of individuals regardless of mounting hostilities and critical hardships.

The e-book specializes in the original Mormon ritual (and accompanying doctrinal underpinnings) of “patriarchal blessings.” Patriarchal benefits have been an leading edge version of the previous testomony perform of fathers making quasi-legal pronouncements over the heads in their sons—a method of verbally conferring rights, can provide, admonition, and counsel to heirs. Binding Earth and Heaven shows how the organizational complexities of this custom contributed to strengthening and maintaining member religion and fealty, thereby bolstering the continuity and improvement of Mormonism.